Philosophy Phriday - Confucius Intro
Post 5 – Confucius Says What Now?
We are leaving the Greek Isles and hopping into the time machine to visit slightly older China where Confucius lived, thought, and wrote about philosophy. The bullet points for Confucius are built on the foundation of morality through justice, sincerity, and ethical behavior. Ethical behavior being born from self-cultivation and skilled judgment rather than strict adherence to the rules. Confucius also believes in strong family bonds and the veneration of generations past.
Morality through justice and sincerity makes a lot of sense to me and using this as the basis for ethical behavior sounds like the kind of thing our modern world is lacking. Ethics built by self-cultivated ideas based on lived experience and skilled judgment also sounds wonderful but is something I think our modern world doesn’t apply often enough. For the first two bullet points, I have no notes. The reverence paid to generations past, and the almost mandatory sense of familial respect is where I have some nuanced thinking.
I believe that reverence goes to those who earn it or help create a “family” support system when you need it. On a personal level, I never had to opportunity to build a connection with my grandparents. We lived in different hemispheres and by the time the internet was a thing, my extended family was not on my radar. I don’t want to write off their existence. Without them, I would not be here today. When I moved across the country for school, I didn’t know anyone, and I was able to build a few small family units that helped me get through some rough times in my college days. Granted I am one person but as unique as my circumstance was moving across the country for school, there are a whole bunch of other people really close to the same scenario in their lives.
Family is complicated as many of us are aware. I’ll get into that at some point, I have thoughts.
Practical Application
Be Kind/Empathize/Trying Our Best – Confucius looked at Justice and thought about where that came from. Kindness is its own form of justice & morality generation mechanism. Being kind sets up the individual to give the benefit of the doubt. Combining that with empathy and the idea that we are all trying our best, the Venn Diagram of Confucius and my own basic philosophy have some amount of overlap.
Be Present – Morality and Justice are the two words that stand out the most in these bullet points. I feel like I will run into more later. However, Justice is a backward-looking idea with current moment applications. Morality is something born of the past, malleable in the moment, and applied to the future of the individual and those within their circles of influence. Being Present does not define itself as something that has strong application here. Presence acts as a doorway that opens the mind to the definition of Morality and the experience of Justice. I stand on shaky legs here; I will keep my eyes open in the next posts about Confucius to gain a stronger feel for how presence is applied to the ways of Confucius.
Listen – Listening has such high value, I don’t foresee a philosophy where listening can’t be applied. Morality and Justice are outward-looking traits that require input from others for validation and reflection. This requires listening. Listening is a core value to being human.
Outbound Thoughts
I feel underwhelmed by the takeaways from the bullet points about Confucius. That might be a symptom of getting a lot out of Aristotle. The main point I took from this first step is that many have stepped on these first stones and the moss has worn away. The moss is on the stones in the middle of the pond, where fewer have traveled and those who have, took their time so no to slip, and more importantly, listen to what the moss has to say.
Next Steps
I want to get into the Analects Confucius wrote and look at Confucius’ Governmental Dissection. I would like to get a better feel for the arena Confucius worked in that led him to the creation of his philosophy. Especially when set against a modern world where global governments are its own brand of four-letter word. I will also be looking for the application of presence as I consume more material.
CHR;)
